Bach, J S: Concerto for Four Keyboards in A minor (after Vivaldi), BWV1065 (harpsichords or pianos)

Alexandre Tharaud follows his dazzling album of Scarlatti sonatas with another fusion of modern and historically informed performance styles. Joining him in this new collection of Bach keyboard concertos is the dynamic period-instrument ensemble Les Violons du Roy, under its director Bernard Labadie.

Alexandre Tharaud leads the current generation of pianists who are both reclaiming Baroque keyboard music from harpischordists and integrating historically informed principles into their playing. Exemplifying this fruitful hybrid of modern piano and authentic style is Tharaud’s collaboration in five Bach concertos with one of North America’s most dynamic period-instrument ensembles, the Quebec-based Les Violons du Roy under its director Bernard Labadie.

The programme comprises four concertos for solo keyboard (1052, 1054, 1056, 1058) and also the concerto for four pianos, BWV 1065, in which – thanks to studio technology – Tharaud plays all four solo parts.

A bonus item is an arrangement of an arrangement: Tharaud and Labadie have adapted Bach’s transcription for keyboard of an Adagio written by the Venetian Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747). Tharaud describes it as “ a combination of Bach’s solo version and of Marcello’s version for oboe and orchestra – with me playing the oboe line”.

Bach was born in the same year as Domenico Scarlatti, the subject of Alexandre Tharaud’s last Virgin Classics album. As the French magazine Classica wrote of the Scarlatti collection: “Tharaud breaks with received ideas of Baroque repertoire and its interpretation … Wonderfully inspired in variety of touch, tonal precision, ornamentation and resonance. His concerns are not musicological … Above all he aspires to natural phrasing and a balance in the rhythms … His imperious virtuosity is never teasing or mannered … What matters to him is the evocation of colours, simplicity and sensuality. This is a disc to put you on cloud nine.”

In a similar vein, Diapason found that: “There is no question of imitating players whose instruments have plucked strings. Tharaud plays the piano in all its glory, with unbridled imagination. He inhabits the space unoccupied by harpsichordists and expanded by the resources of his own instrument,” while Classique Today judged the album “The most physical, sensual, epicurean Scarlatti you could imagine. His tonal perfection and extraordinary artistic freedom have given us one of the recordings of the year.” The Sunday Times stated that: “Tharaud relishes the rhythmic and melodic riches here. The playing and musicianship of this young Frenchman are dazzling throughout.”

This final volume in a complete set, begun ten years ago by Alpha, presents the last of the major works composed for large instrumental forces by J. S. Bach. It includes the pastoral colours of the horns and oboes in the First Brandenburg Concerto BWV 1046, his Harpsichord Concerto in A major BWV 1053, the fine Orchestral Suite no. 4 in D major BWV 1069, and finally, bringing the set to a close, the marvellous Concerto for four harpsichords in A minor BWV 1065. This series has become a reference for these works by Bach, and each volume has received the highest distinctions both in France and abroad.

On 'Vivaldi and Friends', Apollo’s Fire, directed by Jeannette Sorrell, serve up an album of baroque concertos with a twist, just ahead of their UK debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in November.

The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, with their founder/ director Jeannette Sorrell, has made an indelible impression on the international music market since launching on Avie with recordings of Bach, Mozart and Monteverdi. Vivaldi and Friends is a presentation of concertos by the Red Priest with a twist: two authentic Vivaldi Concertos – one for four violins, the other for two cellos – are interspersed with J. S. Bach’s transcript ion of Vivaldi’s A minor concerto for four harpsichords, and Jeannette Sorrell’s own transcription of ‘Summer’ from the ever-popular Four Seasons. Sorrell’s arrangement mirrors the widespread baroque practice of transcribing violin works for keyboard. In her unique version, she performs the original violin parts on the harpsichord.

The album ends with an enigmatic Tango Concerto by contemporary composer René Duchiffre, written in the idiom of Bach and Vivaldi for the unusual combination of two violas da gamba, and instrument not typically given the spotlight in baroque concertos and to the composer’s mind was unjustly neglected. The use of the Tango, a 20th-century dance form, is a nod to the characteristic use of dance forms during the baroque era.

“The ensemble exudes stylish energy…a blend of scholarship and visceral intensity.” Gramophone